Location Based Services and 3D Visualization based on OSM – Martin Over

Datesam., 11 juillet, 11:30 – 11:45

DescriptionIn this presentation we would like to introduce different Location Based Services (LBS) based on OpenStreetMap data. All presented services are implemented at the web portal OpenRouteService.org. – OpenLS Directory Service: A radial search for restaurants, shops, parking, hotels etc. is possible with this online mercantile directory service. – OpenLS Location Utility Service: Geocoding and reverse geocoding (finding associated geographic coordinates from street addresses and inverse processing). – – Accessibility Analysis Service (AAS): Calculates the accessible area based on the street network around a given location. News from the OpenRouteService project will be also presented especially regarding 3D routing applications.

Online map visualisations made easy – Vladimir Agafonkin

Datedim., 12 juillet, 15:15 – 15:30

DescriptionJavaScript APIs for online map services made embedding maps into web pages as easy as writing a few lines of JavaScript code, but map visualizations beyond just markers and polylines remain very hard to do – usually you need to be a Flash expert for this. The talk presents a possible solution to this problem. There’s a programming language that was specially created to make developing graphic visualizations easy – Processing – and it was recently ported to JavaScript. I’m going to show how it can be used with popular map APIs to create map visualizations on the browser side without much effort.

Building a mobile information system – Richard Spindler

Datesam., 11 juillet, 11:45 – 12:00

DescriptionMobeedo is a community based software system that explores a universal approach to provide geo-located content to mobile devices. Mobeedo was created by the startup company Sengaro GmbH over the last two years, and was launched recently, in march this year. The Mobeedo platform provides several tools, first of all a web-based community platform for the creation and annotation of location aware content, that provides a maps-based user interface to easily and quickly create info-areas, that mark the location where a document is relevant for mobile use. Additionally Mobeedo provides a convenient and easy to use client software for so called smart-phones, that provides intuitive access to the data and relevant information that is being made available through the Mobeedo system. Community created information and content is made available by Mobeedo under the terms of the GFDL. Mobeedo uses OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia as initial datasources, and therefore also serves as a location aware search engine for the provided content. This talk will be about how Mobeedo uses OpenStreetMap, and about our approaches to user interface design to make creating and accessing location-aware content easy, and available to anyone. The Mobeedo client provides a different approach to access mapping data, and we would love to present our ideas and challenge the audience to come up with new ideas about how to present and use the data available in OpenStreetMap for building mobile information systems. http://www.mobeedo.com/

Review of OSM related projects at LogiSim (UPC) – Jaume Figueras

Datesam., 11 juillet, 14:00 – 14:15

DescriptionLogiSim, a logistics systems simulation and optimisation research centre at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), is working on different projects involving OSM data and maps. The aim of this paper is to present these projects to the community: 1.tooPath Web Service (www.toopath.com): tooPath is a free tracking services for GPS and GPRS enabled devices already available to anyone. 2.Catalonia Public Transport (CPT): CPT is a experience with UPC students to provide a web service to calculate routes with inter-modal public transport. 3.My OpenStreetMap: Is another web service experience to provide an easy interface to publish geographical data not intended to be a part of map, for example a map of JOSM users in the world. 4.Data Imports: Members of LogiSim, as part of the OSM Spanish user’s community are talking with the Catalan public administrations about the feasibility of giving their geographical data to the OSM Project. A test in the metropolitan area of Barcelona with maps of the Metropolitan Council (www.amb.cat) is about to begin.

Rendering OSM Maps in your Browser – Tels

Datesam., 11 juillet, 14:30 – 14:45

DescriptionThe current available maps (based on OSM data) all use the « slippy map » technology, e.g. they show the user pre-rendered tiles, where the style of the map can only be influenced by choosing a different tile set altogether. Various applications exist for rendering custom maps, but these all make (sometimes complicated) software installations nec., often run out of memory when rendering larger areas, and are thus only for a small group of experienced users. Thus the idea was born to create an application that is as simple to use as possible, for as much people as possible and still allows the maximum freedom when creating maps. This talk will present an AJAX application that runs in your browser and can render custom maps without software installation. Topics also include the difficulties that were encountered,what works and what not, as well as a look into the future.

Making Money with OpenStreetMap – Frederik Ramm

Datedim., 12 juillet, 11:15 – 11:30

DescriptionIf you come to SOTM, chances are that you have vastly more OSM knowledge and experience than the average person. What ways are there to turn that advantage into a positive bank balance? What kinds of products and services can be built around OSM – what does the market demand, and what does the license allow? How do you « sell » OSM to people, and how is selling it to customers different than selling it to hobbyists? Are there legal problems? Most important of all, can you still be part of the OSM community if you make OSM your business, and what can be done to let community and business go hand in hand? Frederik Ramm has been, and is still, trying to empirically answer these questions with his company Geofabrik. In this talk he is going to report on his findings after the first 1.5 years. The aim of this talk is to encourage more OSM hobbyists to venture into business, even if only part-time or in a freelance capacity. This will create a friendly small business ecosystem that could ultimately be an important pillar of the overall success of OSM.

FreeIT and OpenStreetMap – Cristina Moretto

Datedim., 12 juillet, 14:45 – 15:00

DescriptionFreeIT is the FBK ( http://www.fbk.eu/) research unit devoted to the promotion, dissemination of the Open Culture, and the adoption of its models and practices. FreeIT is actively contributing to the OpenStreetMap Project, not only for its merits, but also as a mean to inject innovation in the local society. OpenStreetMap offers, in fact, a unique opportunity to experiment with the variety of issues implied by the adoption of an open, participative model for the gathering, construction, and fruition of digital data and knowledge through the Internet. In this perspective we have developed and disseminated F/LOSS, carried out innovation projects with industries, schools, and public administrations; through lectures, seminars, discussions, we have brought the issue to the general public, and especially the young. One of our projects, Let’s Map Trentino (“Mappiamo il Trentino”) is aimed at the creation and maintenance of a network of contributors and stakeholders, sharing a common aim: to come up with a high-quality OpenStreetMap coverage of our Province. Through this great, participated experience we wish to give Trentino’s outreach a significant push, also by enriching the OSM atlas with annotations specifically meant for tourism, outdoor living, environment-lovers, culture minded people. Another activity is the promotion of the Open Culture in the secondary school stimulating the participation of students to the OSM project FreeIT is the organizer of OSMit 2009 (www.osmit.fbk.eu), the first OSM Italian conference to be held on June 5-6th 2009. Beside promoting free exchange of experiences, and open discussion, the event shall stimulate the strenghtening and (self)organization of the community. Drafting of guidelines for the Italian community is also among the expected outcomes of the conference.

OpenStreetMap standalone server as a core of system for environmental data publication for wide public in Ireland – Blazej

Datesam., 11 juillet, 14:15 – 14:30

DescriptionIn this paper we describe the use of OpenStreetMap as base-layer mapping in a web-map service for outputs from Environmental Research in Ireland. The Environmental Research Center at the Irish Environmental Protection Agency have developed SAFER-Data (Secure Archive for Environmental Research Data) http://erc.epa.ie/safer as a web-based catalogue interface for the collection, management, and dissemination of data, knowledge, and information products generated from funded Environmental Research in Ireland. This project is developing a web-map services to allow scientists, public users, and other stakeholders to view outputs from Environmental research on specially customised maps of Ireland. Selected spatial datasets from the EPA research are stored within the PostGIS database. Polygon and point features respresenting ISO19115 metadata describing other research data, knowledge, and information products are also stored in the PostGIS database. Once every week the OpenStreetMap (.osm) file is downloaded automatically for Ireland and loaded into the PostGIS database using the osm2pgsql. Updated polygons and point features representing objects in the SAFER-Data metadata database are also loaded. Mapnik is used to generate the set of map tiles from the PostGIS database. Several different sets of map tiles are generated representing different environmental themes – for example Air Quality, Water Framework Directive (terrestrial and off-shore waters). For each environment thematic area a special customisation of the OpenStreetMap map style rendering is applied. This helps to emphasis specific environmental features while at the same time de-cluttering the map. OpenLayers is used to provide web access to the tile server. KML files generated for use in other web-based mapping platforms are provided. It is intended that the graphical output from the Mapnik generate tiles will be used to deliver location-based content to mobile devices. To the best of our knowledge this work constituteS the first use of OpenStreetMap by a government agency in Ireland. The usage of OpenStreetMap by an agency such as the EPA will raise assist greatly in raising the profile of OpenStreetMap in Ireland. At the beginning of this project an intensive data collection campaign was launched to improve OpenStreetMap coverage for the town and environs of our host university. This data collection will continue into the future with particular emphasis on the urban and rural region around the host university town.

DescriptionThis study examined specific features to incorporate into a community-sustainable navigation system to attract further participation from the community. In order to do this, we designed and commissioned the construction of TerpNav, an online navigation system for the University of Maryland College Park campus and an application of OpenStreetMap. The primary feature of this system is the ability to find routes across a pedestrian-based area. Because a focus of this study was community sustainability, OpenStreetMap data was chosen as the base for TerpNav’s geographical information. Another focus of this research study was to attract the participation of people using wheelchairs. Based on information gained by interviewing several people who use wheelchairs on the University of Maryland campus, a filter feature was implemented in TerpNav with options to avoid routes with stairs, steep hills, or other obstacles. Other features were included as well to invite general community participation, such as the ability to write notes, report errors, and add or view events. A survey was conducted which found that users were generally satisfied with TerpNav and its features. This shows that TerpNav is a useful application of OpenStreetMap to a college campus, and demonstrates its potential for application to other pedestrian-based areas.

osmFuel: A social app for maintaining fuel station metadata by non OSM users – Adolf Hohl

Datesam., 11 juillet, 15:00 – 15:15

DescriptionosmFuel is an easy to use mobile application which tells users the locations of surrounding fuel stations. It is a social app where users share close to real time fuel prices and implicitly maintain metadata of this fuel station with no upfront investment. OSM identifiers of tank stops and open interfaces make data integration in the OSM database and future services (e.g. future routing services) dead simple. This talk is about igniting and demonstrating this app with background aspects of the Google App Engine based implementation.

Bulk Importing Techniques – Russ Nelson

Datedim., 12 juillet, 11:00 – 12:30

DescriptionThere’s lots of useful geodata already in street address or lat/lon form. The problem: getting permission to import, accessing the data, geocoding (if necessary), grokking the metadata, mapping it to OSM’s metadata, and finally writing a .osm file. Permission is a matter of negotiation: explaining OSM, its open and free nature, why to share, etc. Accessing the data could be screen-scraping or file parsing. Geocoding is possible in the US using geocoder.us, if the data is in the form of addresses. Grokking the data requires understanding the existing metadata. Once you understand the data, it needs to be translated into OSM-style metadata. Sometimes it can be computed; other times you just create a lookup table. Then, writing the OSM file is just a matter of a bunch of print statements. The biggest challenges are obtaining the permission and mapping the metadata, because they’re open-ended and fuzzy. Not just a Simple Matter of Programming.

Open Aerial Map, Quo Vadis? – Cristiano Giovando

Datedim., 12 juillet, 14:00 – 15:30

Description It has been almost two years since the idea of making a free global aerial imagery database was first developed. It seemed quite obvious to do the same thing with aerial images that Open Street Map does with volunteered vector data. This new idea has come to be known as « Open Aerial Map. » Compared with GPS tracks, aerial images are usually harder to collect. One can say, « let’s take a remote controlled plane, stuff it with a digital camera and GPS, and there we have an amateur drone flying over our heads collecting fresh democratic high resolution imagery. » Renting a small plane with a pilot for a few hours will do the same for a much larger area. For the rest, all you need is neo-photogrammetry hacks to stitch everything together and a good georegistration of the output mosaic to the right place on Earth. Wow, it works! Not really. Aviation agencies are not very keen on unmanned flying cameras crossing national aerospaces. Renting small planes is also not the easiest task compared to switching on a GPS logger on your car dashboard and driving around. There are several challenges in processing the data too, as the precision from inertial and positioning sensors is often not accurate enough for precise georegistration. Finally, imagery data requires much larger storage space, computing capabilities and bandwidth for network transmission. That’s too bad; OAM was a nice idea. We could put our drone-collected imagery in OAM and have the OSM community digitize it in a second! Well, remarkably, during the 2007 San Diego wildfires, Chris Schmidt was able to do a successful implementation of Open Aerial Map. This prototype includes several free satellite and aerial imagery datasets which are accessible through common Web interfaces such as WMS, KML SuperOverlay, and more. Cities like Merano, Italy, and Fort Collins, Colorado, have already put their shiny high resolution imagery in OAM. Why, then, is OAM not growing? What are the challenges and difficulties in building the infrastructure needed for OAM? Come join us for this discussion session and bring your ideas and visions for the future of this project.